Ear Wax, Body Odor: Breast Cancer Link?

June 5, 2009 -- A variation in a gene already associated with
breast cancer
risk is also linked with especially unpleasant underarm body odor and
wet ear
wax, according to a team of Japanese scientists.

The discovery is not meant to make women with either condition anxious, says
Toshi Ishikawa, PhD, professor of biomolecular engineering at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology and the senior author of the study. Rather, he says, "we
do strongly hope that our study will provide a new tool for better prediction of
breast cancer risk" by using a new method of finding the variation developed by
his team.

Having wet ear wax or excessively smelly armpits does not mean a woman is
destined to get breast cancer, Ishikawa says. "To be clear, I should strongly
mention that the [specific gene variation found to link body odor, wet ear wax,
and breast cancer risk] is one factor that increases breast cancer risk,"
Ishikawa says. "And it might have to work in tandem with something else -- such
as environmental factors and mutations of tumor suppressor genes such as BRCA1,
BRCA2, p53, and so on."

Ishikawa's team extracted DNA from blood samples provided by 124 volunteers
at Nagasaki University in Japan.

They studied a gene called ABCC11, discovered by them and others in 2001.
Variations in the gene have been found to be associated with increased breast
cancer risk. These variations, called SNPs ("snips") or single nucleotide
polymorphisms, occur when a single nucleotide or molecule in an individual's
genome sequence changes. SNPs are common in the population.

While many SNPs don't affect the way cells function, experts think that other
variations may predispose people to specific diseases such as cancer or affect
the way they respond to a medication.

In this study, Ishikawa monitored the activities of a protein created by the
ABCC11 gene, finding a distinct link between the ABCC11 gene and having
extremely smelly underarm odor and wet, sticky earwax.

Then they figured out the cellular mechanisms that control wet ear wax,
excessively bad underarm odor, and breast cancer risk.

They developed a rapid method of typing this SNP in the DNA sequence
associated with the higher risk for the three conditions. It can be done in 30
minutes.

The study is published in The FASEB Journal.

Armpits, Ear Wax, and Breast
Cancer

Women shouldn't get anxious about the research, says Christy Russell, MD,
associate professor of medicine at the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, who reviewed the study for WebMD. "At this point the research is very
early and women should not be concerned about body odor or earwax as a clue that
they may have a higher risk of breast cancer."

To put the research in perspective, she says, the researchers are looking for
common gene abnormalities in glands that secrete mucus, sweat, or wax that may
be linked with breast cancer risk.

The researchers managed to figure out the exact cellular level mechanisms
which lead to all three conditions, says Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief
of The FASEB Journal and research professor of medicine and director of the
Biotechnology Study Center at New York University.

"I think this is a groundbreaking study which combines human genetics, human
anthropology, and first-rate molecular and cell biology," he says. The
development of the rapid SNP typing method, he says, promises to help predict
who might be at higher risk for serious conditions such as cancer by looking at
"trivial observations such as smelly armpits and wet ear wax."